


The Rose's Blooming

by queenofmelons



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-05
Updated: 2017-11-05
Packaged: 2019-01-29 23:40:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12641685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queenofmelons/pseuds/queenofmelons
Summary: Rantarou paints Maki's nails.





	The Rose's Blooming

“...What are you doing?”

Maki stood awkwardly in the doorway of the dining hall, watching Rantarou slouched over his own hand. “I’m painting my nails.” He explained, a sheepish laugh erupting. “It’s, uh, not working as well as I hoped. I’m good at painting other’s nails, but… My own are a bit hard to work with, you see.” He held his hand up to her. He was right - it was mostly clean, but there were small smudges around the fingernails. “I just felt a little homesick, that’s all. I used to paint my sister’s nails all of the time.”  
“So why don’t you just find somebody else who would let you paint their nails?” Maki questioned with a raised eyebrow. “Didn’t you paint Akamatsu’s a few weeks ago?” Rantarou sighed at this response. “Ouma-kun would skin me if I tried to do that again. Last time, he broke into my room and drew on my face while I was asleep.” He absolutely didn’t seem phased by this, simply laughing it off. “She’s not the only girl in our class, though. Don’t you have other options?” Maki pushed further.  
“Weelll…” Rantarou began. “Shirogane-san seems annoyed and keeps calling me a normie (whatever that means), Angie-san seems to be holing herself up in her art room again, Toujou-san’s out on maid duty, Chabashira-san… Yeah. And that goes for Yumeno-san too, Chabashira-san would break my bones if I did anything.” He laughed again nonchalantly. “Iruma-san is… Well… Iruma-san.” He really tried to put that politely. He tried. “And that leaves you, but, uh, I wasn’t sure if you were into that kind of stuff.” A disguised way of saying _“I think you’d break my arm if I tried to paint your nails”.  
_ “You make it sound like I’m going to snap your neck if you even suggest it.” And of course, Maki immediately picked that out. “Who do you take me for?” Her eyes narrowed, her gaze unintentionally piercing into the green haired boy’s. “A-ah, sorry, it’s kind of uncool of me to assume that stuff, huh?” He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “So, would you mind if I did your nails, then?”

Maki considered this for a moment. She had never said she was _okay_ with it, but at the same time, she related to the kind of homesickness that he was experiencing. While she could easily just reject and walk off, she sat down in the chair across from Rantarou and placed her hand on the table. “Make it quick.” Caught off guard, Rantarou just kind of stared at her until she extended her hand further outward. “Ah, right. One second…” He pulled out a few kinds of nail polishes, seemingly deciding on what course of action he should take. “I actually have an idea of what to do. Just hold still and you should be good.”  
With that, he got to work. Maki had spaced off just a few seconds in. It’s not like she needed to focus on keeping her hand still - they practically never twitched - so she opted to focus on something else. Rantarou. He was such a calm person, rarely ever truly upset or frustrated. Flustered and slightly embarrassed? She had seen that on him. But she had never seen something like raw fear from him. It seemed that there was nothing in the world that could phase him. He just had a relaxed smile on his face as he carefully stroked the nail brush across her fingernails. Twelve little sisters… Of course he was experienced with this sort of stuff. He must’ve been saddled with helping out a lot, much like she had been.  
Her thought process was interrupted when he gently grabbed her other hand, causing her to flinch and tense up. “What are you…?!” Rantarou laughed in response. “Harukawa-san, I need to paint your other hand.” An embarrassed blush spread across Maki’s face as she relaxed considerably. “...Right.” The instinct to fiddle with her hair or bow nearly got the better of her before she remembered her nails were still drying off. Why did that even fluster her so much? She knew better than that.  
“And… I’m nearly done. I just need to paint on a layer of gloss, if that’s fine with you?” Rantarou checked in, waving his hand with a totally calm smile on his face that made Maki feel like she was going to be sick. But, it wasn’t like it was a bad kind of sick. It felt like her stomach was filled with a strange fluttering sensation. What was that? It’s not like she was annoyed with the way he looked, or the way he smiled. “All done, Harukawa-san.”

Maki gently lifted her hands off the ground, staring at her fingers. Her nails were a wine red that seemed to sparkle, fading to black in a gradient with roses delicately painted on in white. It was… Beautiful. She knew that he had some sort of talent with nail artistry, but before experiencing it first hand was something else entirely. “It… It looks pretty.” A small smile crossed her face. “Thank you, Amami.”

Rantarou smiled, and the strange feeling of sickness started all over again.

* * *

The classroom was empty, save for the green haired boy mulling over a book. The sound of a desk scraping against the floor caught his attention, noticing that Maki had shoved a desk next to him and sat down, spreading her hands across, finally bare after weeks of preserving her nail polish.

“Amami. Paint my nails again.”

He blinked once. And then twice. And then smiled.

“Okay.”

The corners of her mouth twitched, before it curled into the smallest of smiles.


End file.
